Working Plan Division, Nagaland, Kohima is one of the functional Division under the Research, Planning and Utilisation circle of the State Forest Department. The main function of the Division is to prepare the District Forest Management Plans and Working schemes for timber operations. The other functions of the Division includes survey-ing of various forest areas, demarcation, forest boundary digitisation, preparation of various types of maps, training the staff to handle GPS and GIS, keeping update of forest cover changes and forest fire data and border affairs related work besides carrying out other related activities.
The Division has been assigned to prepare the Working Plans or District Forest Management Plans for all the Districts of Nagaland in order to manage the natural resources of the state in a sustainable manner. It is a mandate under the Thirteenth Finance Commission Awards. In order to prepare the Forest management plan, the Working Plan Division had carried out the following activities:
- Socio-Economic Data collection:- completed
- Hiring the FSI as consultant for technical guidance: – On going.
- Constituting & Training of survey teams:- Completed
- Carried out Urban Tree Enumeration:- Completed
- Forest Enumerators appointment: – Completed.
- Procurement of survey & camping equipments:-Completed
- Carrying out Forest Inventory: For carrying out the forest inventory the FSI has generated 5054 sample plots to be surveyed and enumerated. The FSI has supplied the GPS co-ordinates of the sample plots and had also sup-plied the marked sample plots maps to the Working Plan Division. The Division immediately had generated the sufficient copies of maps to send to all Territorial Divisions to supply for the survey teams to carry out the sample plot enumeration the exercise is completed .
- Soil & Biomass samples:- For the purpose of getting information on the carbon content, some sample plots were marked wherein soil and biomass samples were to be collected. The Department has tied up with soil Department Kohima, Nagaland and RFRI Jorhat, Assam for carrying out carbon analysis for soil and biomass respectively. The process is completed.
In pursuance of the Hon’ble Supreme Court Order in Writ Petition No 202 of 1995 (T.N. Godavarman Vs Union of India & others), Forest Department prepares the Working Schemes/Management Plans for harvesting of timber from Primary Forests Owned by people or communities on the basis of sustainability. These working schemes are approved by the Regional Office, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, Shillong. Operations of these Working Schemes and Management Plans are time bound. In simple words, working schemes are scientific prescription of various activities for forest areas to be carried out for the forthcoming fixed years to manage the forest in sustainable manner combined with judicial use/ extraction of forest resources including timbers etc.
Preparation and operation of working schemes
Working scheme preparation is one of the main activity of the Division. This work started since the Hon’ble Apex court’s order for management of forests in NE states vide its order Dated 15/01/98. The working schemes are prepared as per guidelines of the National Working Plan code. The prepared working schemes are send to the MoEF for approval. As per the prescription of the working schemes, timber extraction follows in the working schemes areas till the working schemes expires, usually for 5 years.During the operation of any working scheme area, the field officers maintain strict vigil. The timber produce emanating from such areas are taken out of the state only by means of Railway. The railway loading point for the timber produce is only at Dimapur. The timber extracted from the working schemes areas are transported outside NE region as per the SIT guidelines and it’s time to time directives. The Divisional Forest Officer, Dimapur is the Authorised Officer by the department to ensure that all the SIT Guidelines and time to time directives are followed while transporting timber from the state to outside the North Eastern Region. For the purpose of transportation, the North Eastern Frontier Railways, Guwahati, allocates the fixed number of wagon as per the indent request of the DFO, Dimapur.
LIST OF APPROVED WORKING SCHEMES UNDER CURRENT OPERATION IN NAGALAND:
| Sl.No | Name of the Working Scheme | Area (in Ha) |
| In Kohima Forest Division | ||
| 1 | Sechuma | 1135 |
| In Phek Forest Division | ||
| 2 | Tsupfume | 883.5 |
| 3 | Pholami | 1367.5 |
| 4 | Thevopisumi | 1677.5 |
| In Peren Forest Division | ||
| 5 | Lalong | 1075 |
| 6 | Old Nkio | 2157 |
| 7 | Songlhuh | 1072 |
| 8 | Nselowa | 870 |
| In Zunheboto Forest Division | ||
| 9 | Tsuruhu | 830 |
| In Mokokchung Forest Division | ||
| 10 | Chuchuyimlang | 6212 |
| 11 | Yaongyimsen | 1417.5 |
| In Tuensang Division | ||
| 12 | Sangtsung | 1255 |
| In Mon Forest Division | ||
| 13 | Kongan | 5302 |
| 14 | Wakching | 8418 |
| 15 | Monyakshu | 1075 |
ADDITIONAL WORKS CARRIED OUT BY THE DIVISION
1. The Division has carried out survey and digitization works of Purchase Lands namely, Molungyimsen PL, Lirmen PL, Kangtsung PL, Wameken PL, Yimchenkimong PL, Merengkong PL, Japu PL, Mangkolemba PL, Changchang PL.